I have a new record that I’ve released, which you can download over here. There’s some stuff in the songs that I’d like to discuss, but since it’s mostly nerd stuff, like where certain samples came from or why I titled a song a certain thing, I figured I’d post it here instead of on the Melt Records site. Basically, this is the hintbook for Lap Top Post Rock. If that kind of thing sounds dull to you, stop reading: now.
1. See? No Fire.
The melodies in this are made out of that alarm sound from the beginning, which is the fire alarm at the last apartment I lived in. For a while the alarm would go off at least once a week, due to some flooding issue, and everyone would troop outside, learn that there was no fire, and troop back in. Several times I thought, “this is stupid – I know there’s no fire, and I’m staying inside.” But I always went out, figuring that the one time I didn’t would be the one time it would actually be a fire.
I made the recording on one of those stubborn occasions, where I waited a good ten minutes or so before going. Because of how it’s recorded, I still get a little weirded out by the beginning of this song – I always feel like the alarm’s going off again.
2. Crying
I think I played this live, once?
3. I think you cope quite sensibly with the difficulty of living.
The title is stolen from Kafka, if I recall – one of the short stories.
The guitar lick is stolen from “The Gambler”, which is a really great song. For whatever reason I’ve used this guitar bit for tons of short demo songs – when I go through my archives, I find it tacked on all over the place.
4. Girl Name
I’ve always liked songs that are about some specific girl, but I feel pretty weird about naming a song after my girlfriend, and I don’t think she’d like it if I wrote songs about other girls (even if the name is just made up – it still seems kind of wrong). How do guys in bands get away with this kind of thing?
I remember playing this one live once – I think I triggered the drums loops and played the melodies on my keyboard, but I know I twiddled some knobs too, so I must have also played loops of the melodies. The recording was done semi-live, too – all the feedbacky delay on the drums was done in one take with my hand on the knob.
5. Ivy
I wrote this during the summer of 2006, when I was in Chicago. The name comes from all of the ivy at the University of Chicago campus, which was right next to where we were staying.
We’d stayed at this short-term apartment, which had an answering machine, and I guess the guy who was there before us had given people the phone number there. These three messages were on the machine when we got there – I feel especially sad about the one from his mother, since it means that he left the apartment and moved on without telling her.
6. Outside
Also written in Chicago. I think I was really fixated on nature and the outdoors at the time.
(I had originally thought I’d do a whole album while in Chicago, since I had the time, but most of the other songs I produced aren’t so good. There’s a couple acid-esque things that turned out sort of okay, but I’m not really crazy about. Someday when I die and the complete 5dots vaults are released, you’ll hear them. Or you could ask me; I’d probably play them for you.)
7. Good Enough
I remember writing this with the explicit intention that it would go with “Crying” on the laptop post-rock record, and thinking that it wasn’t as good, but it was good enough.
The original version had a really long sample during the end of a black box recording from a plane crash, but something about using that really bothered me. It doesn’t sound as good without it, honestly, but I wasn’t super comfortable using something so dark.
8. I think the title has nothing to do with the song, but I really do love DC and being from here. The sample at the beginning is Alex and Brittany, recorded surreptitiously in public, and I don’t entirely remember the context for those remarks. The rest was mostly an experiment, but I still like how it sounds.
9. There is no language without deceit.
I think this is another title stolen from Kafka. This is the only song I’ve written words for and sung that I didn’t hate later – it helps that there’s only six lines, maybe. The lyrics are about a camping trip I was on in high school, and sitting in the woods in the middle of the night being in awe of the universe. If you don’t understand the lyrics and want me to type them out, leave a comment.
...can be found at the Melt Records website. Dubstep 12” made of drum machine samples – turn yr bass up, yeah?
5dots: I made a compilation of my favorite soca & dancehall songs, and it makes me about as happy as voting makes @brittany.
al3x: @5dots WANT. LINK. CHOONS OR GTFO.
To oblige, here’s that compilation. I didn’t sweat the track order too much, since I figured I’d probably play it on random, but it basically starts with soca, goes to dancehall, and ends with versions (mostly of riddims featured in the comp, but there’s at least one where I just like the version a lot and not the voicings as much). Within each section, tracks are roughly in order of my preference, beginning with favorite and ending with least favorite.
Download Craig’s Soca/Dancehall Comp – 208mb; 149min.
(for search engines, this includes tracks from Bunji Garlin, Dr. Evil/Mr. Evil, Alison Hinds, Idonia, Shurwayne Winchester, Machel Montano, I Sasha, Eclectik, Dawg E Slaughter/Mr. Slaughter, Iwer George, Kevin Lyttle, Maximus Dan, King Bubba, Ninjitsu, Leftside & Esco, Delly Ranks, Mad Anju, Alozade, Hollow Point, Mr. Vegas, Determine, Wayne Marshall, John Wayne, Wayne Smith, Beenie Man, Escandalo, Elan, Notch, & TOK.)
I’m not too proud to admit that there was a time when, on occasion, I listened to happy hardcore. Never for very long, though – it’s just so saccharine, and not actually any good musically. But my current upbeat guilty pleasure (though without the guilt, I suppose) has to be soca. And what with carnival happening, now is the time to get excited about soca, no?
This song has a ton of really ridiculous nu-ravey synths, which are pretty great. And the usual absurd vocal from Mr. Evil (aka Dr. Evil, aka Leftside (of Leftside & Esco)) really puts it over the top.
So mashups are pretty universally agreed to be played out, I think (though maybe they’ve been played out just long enough that they’re ready for an ironic comeback?), but Alex was recently playing me the Best of Bootie 2007 compilation, and this stuck in my head:
Lobsterdust – Walkin’ Out Yo Girlfriend (Unk vs. Avril Lavigne vs. Toni Basil)
Obviously the joke wears thin pretty quick (which is basically the problem with the whole genre, really), but I generally find this a lot more enjoyable than I ever would have expected an Avril Lavigne backing track to be.
I just got a voicemail saying the PrivatePhone service from Netzero is being cancelled. I barely used my PrivatePhone number – it was on my business card website, and my actual cards – but I really like being able to give people a phone number that doesn’t also give them access to my cell. It’s nice sometimes to be able to keep people at a slight remove.
Does anyone know of a decent service comparable to PrivatePhone? All I’m really looking for is a voicemail box that emails me incoming voicemails. If I can check it over the phone, that’s a plus. Please don’t recommend something you don’t have personal experience with – I can google for things, too.
Update: Scott pointed me to GrandCentral (what the hell is up with all the CamelCase?), which does exactly what I need (and a lot more), and is now owned by Google, so probably not disappearing anytime soon.
I have submitted (almost) all of my grad school applications. All that’s left is mailing out two packets of supplemental materials, and finishing the federal application for financial aid. So my thoughts now are beginning to turn to the negative: what do I do if I don’t get in anywhere?
While of course I’m hoping for the best, I understand it’s also prudent to plan for the worst. But my thoughts lately have been pretty consumed with optimism so I can keep the motivation up for doing all the work that applying requires. This means I haven’t really thought much about what my plan B should be.
And obviously, not getting in now doesn’t mean giving up entirely – I can always apply again next year, I know.
So: if you know me – or think you do – and have suggestions for what I should do with my life in the event that I fail as an academic, please post a comment.
Comment [3]
My friend Alexander has posted a list of “people who, when quoted, instantly invalidate any argument”. I am credited as a contributer, and I would like to explain my contributions.
When asked, I thought of Nietzsche and Marx, and I am excluding any serious scholarly work about them in my consideration. But my thought was that I have never heard, in casual conversation, either of these men quoted by anyone who had any idea what they (Nietzsche &/or Marx) were actually talking about.
Outside of philosophy (and even inside, some would say), almost no one really understands Nietzsche or Marx – they’re simply the source of one-liners about the ubermensch or the supposed evils of capitalism. In most conversation, making reference to either of them is a pretty quick way of convincing me that it’s okay to tune out.
I do not agree with all inclusions to that list; some I don’t even understand why they’re there.
These are my two favorite songs by the Talking Heads.
Don’t Worry About the Government
I love the way this song criticizes contemporary obsessions with property, work, and the self (at the expense of politics specifically, but more generally the social dimensions of human living – that we can live in a building surrounded by other people and be completely isolated from all of them) without actually saying anything directly critical. The line about how “my friends are important” sounds less like a statement of fact and more like someone trying to convince himself of something.
And the portrayal of a building accessible only by highway that’s best suited to working reminds me of the sad office buildings in the suburbs where I grew up – a bleak and soulless building to live in, and yet the character extolls its virtues, but in terms of work product rather than feelings or anything emotional.
Certainly one of their greater hits, you’ve probably (hopefully?) heard this before. Basically what I like most is the second verse:
You start a conversation; you can’t even finish it.
You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything.
When I have nothing to say my lips are sealed.
Say something once, why say it again?
I feel that way pretty often.
Comment [1]
Thanks to Alex for hipping B, who hipped me, to the new Jens Lekman record. Alex told me I might like his last one, but in a really couched “maybe it’s not really your thing” kind of way that made me get it but not listen to it.
But his new record is really great. Just saw him live, and he’s a good showman, as well: charming, happy, funny.
Here are my two favorite songs from this record. If you like them, you’ll like the whole damn thing, and you should probably catch him live.
A Postcard to Nina (this is my favorite song, and he told the very funny story behind it while playing it)
Jens Lekman – The Opposite of Hallelujah (but this song is the one that’s stayed stuck in my head – the strings are SO catchy).